NEWS
Government launches free workshops
Small-businessowners, entrepreneurs andinventors arebeing invited to take part in a new series of government-run work- shopsofferingadviceonhowtoturnideas intonewenterprises. The free knowledge-sharing seminars, ‘Building aBusiness
onYour Ideas’,will examine howto exploit business opportu- nities through government supports. Intellectual property – patents, trademarks, designs and
copyright –will be a central theme for discussion at the semi- nars, thefirstofwhichwillbeheldinDonegal later thismonth. The seminars,whichwill run for ninemonths in towns and
cities across the country, areorganisedby thePatentsOffice in co-operationwiththeEnterpriseEuropeNetwork,Enterprise Ireland and theCountyEnterpriseBoards. Speakerswill includeexperts fromthepublicandprivatesec- tors and local entrepreneurs.
FUNDINGALLOCATED
TOSMETRAINING A €1.4m pilot management training fund for small to medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) has been announced, aimed at driving productivity and improving workplace skills. The move comes following Forfás research for the Manage-
ment Development Council, published in March, which identi- fied areas for improvement in management practice among SMEs, and repeated calls fromsmall-business bodies for the need for management development support. The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Batt
O’Keeffe TDsaid he was initially investing €1.4mto get the pilot fund up and running this year. “The plan is to develop seven regional management develop-
ment networks this year – two in Dublin, and one each in the west, south-west, midlands, north-west and south-east. “The pilot initiative is an important test bed for the impact of management training on the performance of firms. I will be ins- isting on clear outcome targets for the training and on regular evaluation of the networks’ effectiveness.”
Insolvencies down in August
The number of corporate insolvencies in Ireland dropped from125 in July to 95 in August, the lowest monthly total since January 2009, according to data compiled byKavanaghFennellCharteredAccount- ants.The firmsaid 1,012 companieswent out of business between January and Au- gust this year, an increase of 14pc on the
same period last year. Despite thedecrease inAugust, the firm
predictedthat companiesgoingoutofbusi- ness will increase again before the end of theyear. Itnotedthat403insolvencieswere recorded in the final quarter of last year – almost a third of the total figure for 2009. “The decrease could be due to a
traditional seasonal slowdown in August andinsolvencies are likely toincrease again in the final quarter of 2010 in linewith the 2009 trend,” said Ken Fennell, a partner with Kavanagh Fennell. “Based on our analysiswe expect the last quarter to show a substantial increase in the number of insolvencies.”
Entrepreneurship as a school subject
Thepresidentof the InstituteofCertified PublicAccountants (CPA) inIrelandhas calledfor entrepreneurshiptobe formally taught in the country’s second-level schools. “While much of Ireland’s economic success story over the past 20 years has been built on the back of foreign direct investment (FDI) it is widely recognised that the days of big projects landing in Ireland and creating thousands of jobs will be far more difficult in the future,” said Geoff Meagher, president of the CPAin Ireland. “In the future we will need to focus on
our own strengths to create new companies within Ireland that will drive our economic success. That means we have toensure that futuregenerations see entrepreneurship as a legitimate career choice.”
Meagher was speaking at the CPA 10 OWNER MANAGER VOL 3 ISSUE 4 2010
Declan Fitzgerald,managing director, Business Banking RI, Ulster Bank; and GeoffMeagher, president, CPA
annual president's dinner at which Tánaiste and Minister for Education MaryCoughlanTDwasguestofhonour. He noted that much of the media
attentionaroundthe recentLeavingCert results had focused on how students had performed inmaths and science subjects. “Graduates in these subjects are
demanded by our multinational community and of course their needs are important,” he said. “However, less attentionwas given to the relatively high failure rates in business studies (6.5pc) and in economics (5pc) or to the fact that the honours rate declined by over 2pc in higher-level accounting.”
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